Hearing Zhou Ziwei hide in the corner, sometimes whispering, sometimes flying into a rage, and finally cursing the old man with fierce words before hanging up the phone, all of this made Zidan, Danqiu and the others admire him from the bottom of their hearts.
When they looked at Zhou Ziwei, who looked only five or six years old, their previous contempt and disdain were gone.
After all... someone who dares to yell at the country's highest military commander, even calling him an old man, is quite terrifying, even if he's just a child. What a talent... this kid is definitely not simple.
"Alright! My dear Comrade Bullet, I've talked to that old man and he's temporarily agreed to join the Dragon Group to carry out a mission. But... before we carry out this mission, you guys have to help me put on a good show, and... before I go abroad, you have to accompany me to some places. I need to make some small arrangements in China before I can go abroad... um... as for the specific arrangements, that old man will have someone call you later."
As Zhou Ziwei handed the phone back to Zidan, who was sitting in a wheelchair, he spoke calmly and casually, still showing no politeness towards the old leader, which made the Dragon Group members present gasp in shock.
Just as everyone was looking at Zhou Ziwei with admiration, making Zhou Ziwei feel extremely good about himself, the youngest blind child walked up to him, looked up at Zhou Ziwei with his eyes that seemed to be covered with dust, and asked with some curiosity, "Little brother, you are a strange person... Why did you still talk so much into the phone even though the other party hung up a long time ago?"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziwei's expression froze, and his tender little face flushed slightly... He was, after all, a grown man who was over twenty-eight years old in reality and over thirty in his mind, yet now an eight-year-old girl had exposed his true colors. His tender old face was truly embarrassed... When he saw the amused looks on the faces of his new teammates beside him, Zhou Ziwei felt even more ashamed.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei was thick-skinned enough. He was only slightly taken aback, then chuckled and said, "Your ears are really sharp... But you probably don't know... I have a special ability: I can transmit my voice automatically via radio waves. As long as it's a phone line with me, I can make it automatically transmit my voice from the other end, even if they hang up. My voice can still penetrate it. So... that old geezer dared to hang up on me before I finished speaking, so naturally I had to give him a good scolding."
Zhou Ziwei's words were truly shocking. The blind child hadn't expected Zhou Ziwei to have such amazing abilities. Upon hearing this, his unfocused eyes widened instantly, and his little face showed excitement. He exclaimed in surprise, "Really?! You're even better at wireless communication than Pinball! Wow... No wonder you were able to join the Dragon Group at such a young age. You really do have so many extraordinary skills!"
"Tch... Only you would believe him!" Pinball, sensing its authority in its field was being challenged, immediately curled its lip in disdain and said, "Hey... You're so young, yet you can't even prepare a draft before you start bragging... Transmitting sound directly through the wire is a rather difficult problem... If you used some special tools, the possibility would be slightly higher, but... you obviously didn't prepare for that at all. And... I don't believe a little kid like you, who's probably still a baby, has such impressive skills. Hmph... If you want to get your teammates' attention and gain their respect, please don't resort to cheating, okay? Although you're the designated vice-leader,... I, Pinball, still have the right to despise you."
Zhou Ziwei was given a disdainful look by a chubby little boy weighing over 100 kilograms, leaving him feeling both amused and exasperated. He didn't say much at the moment, but immediately took out his phone, asked the chubby boy for his number, and said, "Little Fatty, I'll call you from over there later. When you hear the phone ring, don't answer it, just press reject. Then you all see... whether I can hear my voice in the disconnected call!"
"Huh...you don't actually have that kind of ability, do you?! Hmph...I really don't believe in this nonsense."
When Zhou Ziwei was about to demonstrate this ability on the spot, the ball was first taken aback. After considering the feasibility of such a thing, it showed a disdainful look again. Then it asked everyone to witness it and see if Zhou Ziwei was just bragging.
Zhou Ziwei was speechless at the thought of being reduced to fighting with a little kid. However, he had no choice but to do so in order to maintain his dignity as a person of his status. After all, he had promised the old leader that he would help him complete that mission, which was quite difficult. To complete the mission, Zhou Ziwei would have to rely on the abilities of these Dragon Group members. If he couldn't subdue these guys, how could he, as a child, command them?
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 494: Dare to Be My Slave for Life?
Zhou Ziwei knew that this group was quite powerful. Although, strictly speaking, none of the members had any special superpowers like him, almost every one of them had reached the pinnacle of their respective fields, which was beyond the reach of an ordinary person. Therefore, each of them could be considered a dragon among men, and that was why they deserved the title of the Dragon Group.
The Dragon Group originally consisted of eleven members, and none of the two members had overlapping expertise. In other words, each of them was almost the number one in their own field, which inevitably fostered a sense of arrogance and pride in them.
No one is willing to submit to anyone else; this is a common problem among these privileged individuals.
Even as the team leader, Zidan couldn't truly win the complete respect of his team members.
Despite his impressive marksmanship, what does that have to do with the team members? For example, with Pinball, he only respects those who are better at hacking than him. As for those who are strong in other fields, he doesn't care how strong they are, and naturally, he doesn't admire them.
Now Zhou Ziwei actually said that he could force sound from the other person's phone by interrupting the signal. This made Tanqiu extremely incredulous. Although this signal technology and hacking technology are not exactly the same, they do have certain commonalities. If anyone can make some technical breakthroughs in this area, it should be Tanqiu, not this little brat with X-ray vision, right?
The Dragon Group members knew nothing about Zhou Ziwei's true identity, age, or other information. Zhou Ziwei's file was classified as SSS-level state secret, and even the Dragon Group leader, Zidan, had no authority to access it.
According to the information they currently have about Zhou Ziwei, he is six years old, a typical preschool child.
The data shows that Zhou Ziwei's special skill is the ability to see through things. This ability is not an ordinary skill, but rather a magical superpower. However, in the eyes of those proud members of the Dragon Group, Zhou Ziwei's ability is just something he was born with, not something he learned or practiced hard. So... at most, they would only envy Zhou Ziwei's good luck, but they would never feel any admiration for him because of it.
The oldest member of the Dragon Group was no more than thirty years old, and they were all young at heart. When they heard Zhou Ziwei, this newly joined "kid," spouting nonsense as soon as he arrived, they were all very suspicious. He had already been cursing at the old leader, which was shocking enough, but now he even claimed that he could continue the conversation with the other party through a disconnected phone.
When Zhou Ziwei said that the experiment could be carried out immediately, these people naturally followed along to watch the excitement.
Then someone added fuel to the fire, suggesting that Zhou Ziwei and Pinball should gamble on something, otherwise it wouldn't be exciting enough.
"New guy... shall we bet something?" The ball hesitated, glancing at Zhou Ziwei, who was at least half a head shorter and several sizes thinner than itself. It was a bit difficult to speak up, since Zhou Ziwei looked like a little kid who still clung to his mother's arms, and betting with such a brat seemed a bit unfair...
"I'll bet on anything, it's up to you!" Zhou Ziwei said with a nonchalant shrug.
"Really, you'd bet anything?" The ball rolled its eyes at Zhou Ziwei's nonchalant tone, sneered, and said, "Don't go back on your word. If I say... whoever loses will be the other's slave for life, are you willing to bet?"
Zhou Ziwei chuckled inwardly, but on the surface he still nodded nonchalantly and said, "It doesn't matter. As long as you dare to bet, I dare to bet. I'm just afraid you'll renege on your debt after you lose, that would be too boring."
"What? You...you're saying I'm reneging on my promise?" The fat on the ball's face trembled violently with anger, then he snorted and said, "Fine! Let's bet this in public. Whoever loses will be the other's slave for life, with no regrets. Whoever goes back on their word is a dog without a penis!"
A bear without a penis is a female bear.
The group's female members immediately glared at the ball for making such a sexist vow. However, they were also curious whether Zhou Ziwei dared to accept such a big bet, so they didn't confront the ball for the time being and just watched how Zhou Ziwei would react.
"Alright... let's make a bet then."
Zhou Ziwei replied calmly, "If I tell you, I will make you my slave for life. But if you lose... then I don't need you to be my slave for life. As long as you always consider yourself my little brother and acknowledge me as your big brother, that will be enough."
"Damn it... You little brat actually want to be the boss and make me your little brother..." Ball laughed angrily and said, "Since that's the case, let's have a go! If you can really beat me, then I'll acknowledge you, you little brat, as my boss."
So Zhou Ziwei was immediately kicked out of the small conference room of the military district, and made to take his own phone and retreat all the way to the playground outside. At their prompting, he retreated more than 100 meters in one go before they stopped.
Immediately afterward, the loudest guy, nicknamed "Cannon," stood at the door and shouted that Zhou Ziwei could start dialing the pinball machine, then slammed the door shut with a "bang."
The classic music from the Tom and Jerry cartoon started playing, and the phone on the table where Pinball was sitting vibrated. Pinball excitedly picked up the phone, glanced at the curious eyes around him, but didn't hang up immediately. Instead, he answered the call.
"Huh...didn't I tell you to hang up? Why did you answer it?" Zhou Ziwei asked curiously from the playground. He turned on the speakerphone on his phone, so everyone around could hear him clearly.
"Hehe... It's nothing. I just wanted to hear what your voice sounds like over the phone, so we wouldn't be fooled later!" The chubby boy looked like a carefree, clueless little pig, but since he was a master hacker, how could he be a complete idiot? The boy didn't believe Zhou Ziwei could actually forcibly reconnect a broken signal. Even mobile network operators couldn't do that, and hackers were equally helpless in that regard.
However, Danqiu knew that many advanced electronic products could transmit sound wirelessly over short distances. He was worried that Zhou Ziwei might use this method to confuse them. In that case, Zhou Ziwei's voice might be heard in the room, but it might not actually be coming from this phone.
As for the phone, it was known that the sounds produced by different sound-producing devices were not exactly the same. That's why he deliberately answered the phone first, so that everyone could hear what Zhou Ziwei's voice sounded like coming from the phone. That way, when he hung up the phone later, if Zhou Ziwei's voice came through again, everyone could tell whether the voice was really coming from the phone in the phone in the phone.
This shows that although this kid, Danqiu, is young and looks quite chubby, his cunning is no less than anyone else's.
"Oh... So how does it sound now? Can you confirm it? Or you could use your phone's recording function to record my voice first, and then record another audio file after you hang up, and then compare the two... If all else fails, you could simply use a computer to compare the sound waves... That way there should be absolutely no possibility of faking it, right?"
"Nothing in this world is absolute, but... I do agree with your suggestion, you might want to consider it..."
With the seriousness of a scholar, Pinball chatted with Zhou Ziwei for a while, and only after collecting a long enough recording of Zhou Ziwei's conversation did he suddenly press the red button to end the call...
The phone screen immediately changed to show that the call had ended and recorded the duration of the call.
"I said... new guy..." While looking at the screen on his phone, Ball continued talking to the phone he had just snapped in his hand, like an idiot: "I'm curious... how did you develop this X-ray vision ability? And how far can you see through it? For example... now that we're this far apart, can you see through the walls and see what we're doing?"
The people nearby couldn't help but grin when they saw that Pinball was still looking serious and talking to himself.
The phone call had already ended, and Zhou Ziwei wasn't blind; he didn't have ears that could hear everything. How could he possibly hear what Zhou Ziwei was saying?
Before the mocking smiles on everyone's faces could fade, Zhou Ziwei's voice came through the phone again, even though it had been disconnected long ago... "Please... this is just a short-range X-ray vision ability, not the legendary all-seeing eye. I don't have the super hearing of a blind child. My X-ray vision is basically only effective within thirty meters. Beyond that distance... it has no effect."
A moment of silence fell over the entire room, followed by a collective gasp of astonishment.
Everyone had taken Zhou Ziwei's earlier words as a joke, and no one believed that Zhou Ziwei actually had the ability to force a conversation through a broken communication line.
But now it sounds... the voice is clearly Zhou Ziwei himself, and... it's clearly coming from the phone in front of him that's a pinball machine. He actually did it.
"You actually did it... This... How is this possible!"
After a moment of stunned silence, Pinball suddenly grabbed the phone from the table and, losing his composure, yelled into it, "Impossible... You must have used some underhanded tricks... I don't believe it... I don't believe you could actually force a broken signal back on and tell me... How... how did you do that?"
Pinball pretended to be hysterical, but deliberately turned his phone screen only halfway while speaking, so that it was facing only him, and the text on the screen could not be seen from other angles.
And just then, he suddenly stretched out a chubby finger and gently flicked a button on the phone.
Then the onlookers heard Zhou Ziwei's voice, which was coming from his phone, suddenly stop...
The Dragon Group members were all taken aback by this situation, then excitedly shouted, asking all at once, "How is it... how is it? Was the signal cut off this time?"
Pinball ignored everyone's words, just staring blankly at his phone, forgetting to speak.
"The new kid is still talking to Pinball, but Pinball has turned off the speakerphone, so only Pinball can hear the new kid's voice... Of course, there's also me..." At this moment, the blind boy standing on the outside said coldly, "No wonder the higher-ups let a six-year-old be our deputy... It seems this kid is quite capable..."
Upon hearing this, the members of the Dragon Group were all taken aback, and then they all shouted for the ball to turn the hands-free function back on.
Hearing Zhou Ziwei's voice coming from the phone again, Pao Tong roared in frustration, "I refuse to believe this! I've turned off his phone, let's see if his voice can still come out of here!"
As he spoke, the cannon decisively pressed the power button. Then, a message appeared on the phone screen indicating that the phone was shutting down. After flashing once, the screen went completely black.
"Tch... his phone is off, so of course his voice can't be coming through."
The bespectacled man nicknamed "Motor" curled his lip in disdain at Cannon's behavior and said, "Besides, the little guy only said that after the other party interrupted the call, he could still force the line to continue talking to the other party, but he didn't say that he could still maintain the call status even if the other party turned off their phone, right? So... this bet should be considered a win for the new kid. I'm telling you, Ball, you should just admit defeat, hehe... Luckily, he didn't make you his slave for life, he only made you acknowledge him as his boss, otherwise... hehe... otherwise, you would have been demoted to a servant this time! Haha... By the way, Ball, you don't really want to go back on your word, do you? You swore that if anyone went back on their word, it was... what was it again?"
Mada isn't very old; he just turned nineteen this year. But despite his young age and the lack of any dazzling or prestigious status, certificates, or degrees, he is already a world-renowned master in the fields of mechanics and electrification.
Ma Da was also cultivated by the country as a key talent from a young age. When he was fourteen or fifteen, he published several papers in industry magazines under the strange pen name "Safety". Each of these papers caused a seismic sensation in the industry.
If Ma Da dared to step forward now and admit that he is the genius of the mechanical electrification industry, the adulation and worship he would receive would be terrifying.
Motor and Pinball have always been the pair that dislike each other the most in the group, and they will always try to go against each other whenever they have the chance.
At the beginning of today's events, Mada didn't think Zhou Ziwei had any chance of winning, so he just hid on the sidelines and kept an eye on things without saying anything. Now that he saw that the ball game was doomed and there was no chance of a comeback, he immediately jumped out and used words to shut the ball game down, so that the ball game wouldn't make any more excuses later.
Pinball gritted his teeth in resentment, knowing that he had truly lost the bet today, and there was no point in continuing. Fortunately, it wasn't a heavy bet like being enslaved for life. However... asking him, a computer genius and the top hacker in China, to call a five or six-year-old kid his boss was something he really couldn't bring himself to do.
But before the ball could even open its mouth to beg for mercy, Zhou Ziwei's slightly childish yet full-bodied voice suddenly rang out again from the phone, which had been completely turned off: "Hehe...who said that just because the phone is off, my calls can't come in?"
"Ah—" Zhou Ziwei's voice suddenly rang out this time, startling the few people standing nearby. Almost no one thought that Zhou Ziwei could still make a sound from the phone that was already switched off. They were all waiting to see if the ball would bravely admit defeat when the switched-off phone suddenly rang again, which naturally gave them a fright.
"You...this...how is this possible? It's fake...this must be fake."
Just as Pinball was about to admit defeat, he heard Zhou Ziwei's voice coming from his switched-off phone. He jumped up like a rabbit with its tail on fire, grabbed his bag, pulled out a laptop, sat down, and began typing out a series of commands with lightning speed...
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 495: Bullets Can Be Used Like This Too
Seeing the ball's reaction, everyone was slightly taken aback. Then, Zhou Ziwei's voice came from the switched-off phone again, saying, "How is it? Can I end the call now?"
"No way—" Pinball heard this on the other end. One hand was still on the keyboard, frantically typing, while the other hand was raised high in the air and waving vigorously. He said, "I suspect you're cheating. If you're not hiding anything... then please stay on the call for one more minute... I only need one last minute to expose your true colors. How about it? Do you dare?"
Zhou Ziwei smiled indifferently and said, "Alright! It's just a minute, I'll wait for you... Since I'm going to take you as my subordinate, you have to be convinced first. But... my patience is limited, so... there's only one minute left!"
"Okay... just one more minute!" After saying that, Pinball used both hands to wildly dance on the laptop like he was having a seizure. In the end, his hands even formed a blurry afterimage on the laptop screen.
His impressive hand speed is almost on par with Zhou Ziwei's speed back then.
As expected of the Dragon Group's elite hacker, Pinball didn't waste a minute; he successfully hacked into the mobile network service company in just thirty-eight seconds.
Generally speaking, large, fee-based companies that primarily target the general public must have extremely robust cybersecurity measures. If they can be easily compromised by a hacker, even a small mistake during operation after the network is compromised could result in countless losses for the company.
Therefore, the cybersecurity capabilities of large companies like this are not necessarily worse than those of some national security agencies.
A hacker who can still breach such protection measures is undoubtedly one of the world's top hackers. And a hacker like Pinball, who successfully broke in in less than a minute... such an achievement is indeed worthy of being called the king of hackers.
However, at this moment, Pinball showed no sign of pride or arrogance. Instead, his chubby face was ashen and bloodless, because... after gaining the highest level of access to the network, he immediately retrieved all the relevant communication data of his own phone. Then, he clearly saw on the screen that... his phone, which was supposed to be switched off, was clearly in a call.
Originally, the ball thought that the phone, which was already turned off, could not possibly make any calls anymore. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei's move proved that he had been cheating all along. The phone had never actually communicated with the other party. Zhou Ziwei must have used some other method to create the illusion that the phone was making a call.
That's why Danqiu rushed to hack into the internal network of the mobile network operator. If his investigation showed that his phone was switched off, or even if it hadn't actually been used for a call, then even if Danqiu still couldn't uncover what method Zhou Ziwei used to deceive these people, he could be completely certain that Zhou Ziwei was lying.
However, to Pinball's utter surprise, the final result of the investigation was quite unexpected: the phone, which was supposed to be switched off, was still in a call state and could even make sounds.
This... this is ridiculous!
Zhou Ziwei finally heard the ball admit defeat and shout "Boss!" on the phone. He smiled slightly and gently pressed the button to turn off the phone. At the same time, he glanced at the small conference room ahead and then withdrew his control over the newly born independent soul.
This matter seems incredibly mysterious to outsiders, but for Zhou Ziwei, it's as simple as it gets.